complementary medicine – exposing academic charlatans

Tag: Homeopathy

Let’s be clear: pseudoscience kills. And they are being employed with total impunity thanks to European laws that protect them.

They kill thousands of people, with names and family. People such as Francesco Bonifaz, a 7-year-old boy whose doctor prescribed homeopathy instead of antibiotics. He died in Italy [1]. People like Mario Rodríguez, who was 21 years old and was told to use vitamins to treat his cancer. He died in Spain [2]. People like Jacqueline Alderslade, a 55-year-old woman whose homeopath told her to stop taking her asthma medication. She died in Ireland [3]. People like Cameron Ayres, a 6-month-old baby, whose parents did not want to give their child “scientific medicine” [4]. He died in England. People like Victoria Waymouth, a 57-year-old woman who was prescribed a homeopathic medication to treat her heart problem. She died in France [5]. People like Sofia Balyaykina, a 25-year-old woman, who had a cancer that was curable with chemotherapy but was recommended an “alternative treatment”, a mosquito bite treatment. She died in Russia [6]. People like Erling Møllehave, a 71-year-old man whose acupuncturist pierced and damaged his lung with a needle. He died in Denmark [7]. People like Michaela Jakubczyk-Eckert, a 40-year-old-woman whose therapist recommended the German New Medicine to treat her breast cancer. She died in Germany [8]. People like Sylvia Millecam, a 45-year-old woman whose New Age healer promised to cure her cancer. She died in Netherlands [9].

European directive 2001/83/CE has made –and still makes— possible the daily deceiving of thousands of hundreds of European citizens [10]. Influential lobbies have been given the opportunity to redefine what a medicine is, and now they are selling sugar to sick people and making them believe it can cure them or improve their health. This has caused deaths and will continue to do so until Europe admits an undeniable truth: scientific knowledge cannot yield under economic interests, especially when it means deceiving patients and violating their rights.

Europe is facing very serious problems regarding public health. Over-medicalization, multiresistant bacteria or the financial issues of the public systems are already grave enough, and there is no need to add to that gurus, fake doctors or even qualified doctors who claim they can cure any disease by manipulating chakras, making people eat sugar or employing “quantic frequencies”. Europe must not only stop the promotion of homeopathy but also actively fight to eradicate public health scams, which implicate more than 150 pseudo-therapies in our territory. Thousands of citizens lives depend on that. In fact, according to recent research, 25.9 % of Europeans have used pseudo-therapies last year. In other words, 192 million patients have been deceived [11].

Some believe there is a conflict between freedom of choice for a treatment and the removal of pseudo-therapies, but this is not true. According to article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, every person has a right to medical care. Lying to patients in order to sell them useless products that could kill them breaks the right to true information about their health. This way, even if a citizen has a right to refuse medical treatment when properly informed, it is also true that nobody has the right to lie to obtain profit at the expense of someone else’s life. Only in a world in which lying to a sick person would be considered ethical, could we allow homeopathy—or any other pseudo-therapy—to continue to be sold to citizens.

Effective treatments being replaced by false ones is not the only danger of pseudo-therapies. Obvious delays in therapeutic care occur when a person gets false products instead of medication at the early stages of a disease. Many times, it is already too late by the time they get treated with proper medicine. Moreover, several of these practices have serious effects on their own and may cause damage or even death because of their side effects.

Many pseudo-therapists argue that “the other medicine” comes with side effects as well, which is true indeed. However, the difference resides in that pseudo-therapies cannot cure a disease or improve your health, and because of that patients assume risks in exchange of promises that are a scam, according to the full weight of the scientific evidence available. Lying to a sick person is not another type of medicine, it is simply lying to a sick person.

Every country has to face the issue with pseudo-therapies in its own ways. Yet it is not acceptable that European laws protect the distortion of scientific facts so that thousands of citizens can be deceived or even lead to their deaths.

We, the signatories of this manifest, therefore declare that:

Scientific knowledge is incompatible with what pseudo-therapies postulate, as in the case of homeopathy.

European laws that protect homeopathy are not admissible in a scientific and technological society that respects the right of the patients not to be deceived.

Homeopathy is the most known pseudo-therapy, but it is not the only one nor the most dangerous one. Others, such as acupuncture, reiki, German New Medicine, iridology, biomagnetism, orthomolecular therapy and many more, are gaining ground and causing victims.

Measures must be taken to stop pseudo-therapies, since they are not harmless and result in thousands of people affected.

Europe needs to work towards creating legislation that will help stop this problem.

Europe being concerned about the misinformation phenomena but at the same time protecting one the most dangerous types of it, health misinformation, is just not coherent. This is why the people signing this manifesto urge the governments of European countries to end a problem in which the name of science is being used falsely and has already costed the life of too many.

[This manifesto was reproduced with permission. Scientists in other countries who take healthcare and science serious should put more pressure on their politicians and regulators to, uhmm, wake up, because this is by no means a European problem, it is a global problem – please sign the manifesto]

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Better Health! Excellent, let’s vote for Dr Kerryn Phelps. But hold your horses. While most people will think in terms of improved diagnostics and better, safer, less expensive medications and improved accessibility, others such as Dr Phelps have a different agenda. For some people, usually having some financial stake in alternative healthcare, ‘better health’ unfortunately means that they will exploit the current problems/deficiencies in the healthcare system to promote less effective, or even completely ineffective, medications to the general public. One can almost call this their ‘unique selling point’. But when a medication is completely ineffective none of the other issues (diagnostics, cost, safety etc) matters, and yet people such as Dr Phelps continue to promote this. In my humble opinion, a criminal activity, because ineffective treatments cause unnecessary harm and death.

But she is a clever one. As a well-known public figure, she cannot do all of the dirty work herself because she needs to keep her image squeaky clean. So, to get behind the swing of the bat, it is worthwhile to have a look at her collaborators in what I call, an ‘unholy Alliance’, and their dark world of deceit. Dr Phelps is an adjunct at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM), headed by Prof Alan Bensoussan. She is also part of the NICMs advisory board and states on her campaign website: “Dr Phelps is committed to teaching the next generation of doctors as Conjoint Professor at University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine and in the National Institute of Complementary Medicine at Western Sydney University.”

It is during these advisory board meetings, held in the herbal-essence filled back rooms at Western Sydney university, where they come up with their sinister plans of how to integrate ineffective treatments into the healthcare system. Let me put in plain language; ‘how to BS the public’. Let me explain at the hand of homeopathy (a next article will deal with vaccinations and traditional Chinese medicine).

Support for Homeopathy

Homeopaths are an interesting, although completely delusional, bunch of people – but they do have a very good sense of humour. They will for example take a substance, any substance (even imaginary ones), go into a state of delirium during a process called ‘proving’, and dilute the substance away – completely away. During this process they note their ‘symptoms/state of delirium/feelings’ which then becomes the indications, and like magic, the vial containing only solvent suddenly becomes a ‘medicine’. To understand their sense of humour, you just need to read about any ‘proving document’. Take for example the homeopathic remedy prepared from a Black hole. They affix a vial of alcohol to the viewing end of a telescope focused on Cygnus X-1’s location within the Cygnus constellation. After collecting the ‘substance’ they dilute it into oblivion with the delirious homeopaths taking this ‘medicine’ stating that it; “ … felt their teeth were “drawing inward.” So it makes perfectly sense that this homeopathic remedy is suitable to be prescribed for……..??

You also get homeopathic remedies prepared from; Excrementum caninum (yes, dog shit), condoms, colours, musical notes, Berlin wall etc. (Here you can find my top ten list of homeopathic remedies for 2017. If you can top any of these remedies, please let me know – I am busy compiling 2018’s list). One might now argue that all these examples are on the extremities of homeopathy, and yes sure, but it doesn’t really matter. You can also take any well-known medicinal herb, or even a real medicine such as an antibiotic, but as soon as you ‘prepare’ it according to the homeopathic principles, the medicine disappears which will render even the most effective antibiotic useless. The sad reality is that some homeopaths prescribe their remedies for serious conditions such as malaria and cancer which obviously leads to a lot of unnecessary harm and death.

Sure, the biggest risk is indirect, due to neglecting serious medical conditions, but there are also examples when homeopaths go into such as state delirium that they sometimes manage to get their dilutions wrong. For example; many babies died and hundreds were hospitalised in the US after a toxic substance (deadly nightshade) was not correctly diluted. Clearly homeopathy cannot possibly be included within the ‘Better Health” campaign promise?

So how does Dr Phelps support and exploit this? She operates a number of ‘integrative medicine’ clinics where naturopaths, who are known for their love of homeopathy and anti-vaccination tendencies, are employed. A couple of years ago Dr Phelps made the following comments in an article regarding the funding of homeopathy:

Start of excerpt

“Unfairly targeted?

But some doctors suggest homeopathy is being unfairly targeted.

“It smacks of a crusade to me,” says Professor Kerryn Phelps, president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA), which promotes “the integration of safe, evidence-based complementary medicines and therapies with current mainstream medical practice”.

She does not believe homeopathy is having the kind of impact on private health premiums Harvey fears, and says there are “bigger fish to fry” when it comes to fixing the healthcare system.

Phelps says homeopathy can be easily criticised because it has a relatively small evidence base.

But, she suggests orthodox treatments are not subject to the same level of scrutiny.

“The Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year produced a meta-analysis of SSRI anti-depressants in mild to moderate depression and found them no better than placebo,” says Phelps, who is Conjoint Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales and a former president of the Australian Medical Association.

“If you are going to exclude treatments that don’t have an evidence base then we have to start looking at pharmaceuticals that don’t have an evidence base, surgical therapies that don’t have an evidence base.”

Matter of evidence

Dr Vicki Kotsirilos, who originally founded AIMA, says she is sympathetic to Harvey’s concerns but rejects some of his conclusions.

“To say that there is no evidence for homeopathy is actually incorrect and unfortunately a lot of people make those statements,” says the Melbourne-based GP, who points to evidence collected by the British Homeopathic Association.

“There have been systematic reviews that have shown that overall homeopathy is not anymore of benefit to placebo or of marginal benefit. But there have been some Cochrane Collaboration reviews that there is a little bit of research available for some therapies.”

She says some of the major studies quoted don’t properly take into account how homeopathy is used.

“When you prescribe homeopathy, it’s often individualised and you won’t use the same homeopathic remedy for one person with a particular disease to another person with the same disease,” says Kotsirilos.

She says homeopathy, and other complementary therapies, are particularly popular among patients who have suffered side-effects from medication, or where surgery is contraindicated.

“Out of all the complementary medicines it is the least understood, with the least amount of research,” says Kotsirilos, who calls for more funding for research.

“We need more research to be able to identify which patients might benefit from homeopathy and in what conditions, bearing in mind that there are people out there who choose to use this and we have to respect their choices.”

End of excerpt

(Vicki Kosirilos is obviously also part of this ‘alliance’ being a member of the NICM’s ‘Research Committee’). A couple of years ago the NHMRC did a thorough study on homeopathy and found it to be, surprise-surprise, ineffective and recommended that the public should not use homeopathy because they are putting their health at risk. This the Alliance cannot have, because it flies in the face of their plans to integrate ineffective remedies. The director of the NICM, Alan Bensoussan published a press release highlighting the ‘methodological flaws’ and that it doesn’t agree with all international reports on homeopathy etc. But it is during these advisory board meetings where they decide how and who should respond to this unfair ‘attack’ on their sinister plans (here you can read the minutes of one of their meetings). This job usually falls in the lap of Carl Gibson, the CEO of Complementary Medicine Australia – their attack dog.

He promptly published that the NHMRC report is “fatally flawed” and ends his press release with the prophetic words “Homeopathy has been around for hundreds of years, and I am sure will be around a lot longer than some of the critics.” Translated it simply means “We (Dr Phelps, the NICM and their whole alliance) do not accept that a complementary medicine is ineffective, and we will do whatever we can to continue to protect, promote and sell it”. They also lodged a complaint at the Commonwealth Ombudsman, claiming that the NHMRC report “…is inaccurate, highly misleading to the public and unjustly damaging to the credibility of the homeopathy sector. It is therefore essential that all published documents relating to the Homeopathy Review are rescinded in their entirety.” (there is some uncertainty about whether this complaint was actually lodged or not).

All that these people need to do is to plant the seed of doubt in the mind of the public, which is enough to ensure that people will continue to buy these ineffective remedies. Dr Phelps will continue to make real healthcare suspect, claim that her ‘medications’ are all natural, safe and evidence-based and that it will also save you a lot of money. But in reality, she and her Alliance does not give a hoot that people, including young children and babies, die because of what they are promoting – for them it is all about money!! (A good example of the type of people you need in such an Alliance is Prof Gregory Kolt. He was even found guilty of fraud; “As a result, the defendant fraudulently obtained a total of $5,864.15 from the Authority over a period of 14 months. When the matter was investigated, the defendant provided false information and documents.”)

A vote for Dr Phelps is a vote to give this unholy Alliance a foot in the federal door. She will provide easier access and opportunities for this Alliance to lobby government ministers in order to integrate their ineffective remedies with conventional healthcare. This, in my view, will be a travesty for the healthcare system. While homeopathy is one of the easier fake medications to debunk, Dr Phelps’s involvement and impact unfortunately gets a lot murkier. In a next article I will focus on vaccinations and how this alliance has infiltrated the World Health Organisation who now promotes, you guessed it, homeopathy and all sorts of other disproven and unproven traditional medicines.

An update (11/10/2018)

Clearly Kerryn Phelps have a cult – like following. People for whom she is a hero with her sword drawn riding on a rainbow coloured unicorn to save the day (so by the way, homeopaths also make ‘medicine’ from unicorns!) After I’ve posted this article on Reddit some called it “total bullshit”, “complete raving madness” and the poor author a “crazy or a stooge”, “spineless bitch” “unhinged individual”. So, I just thought I’ll add some information because maybe, just maybe, I can convince some of her followers – yeah right.

Here is an interesting example. One of the biggest supporters of Homeopathy is none other than HRH Prince Charles. He apparently give his cows homeopathic remedies in the hope that ………… I just don’t know. A wonderful technique that Dr Phelps and the unholy alliance exploit is called ‘Appeal to Authority’. This simply means that when a person such as Prince Charles say that he believes that medication X works, then many members of the public will simply follow his lead and up goes your sales. Because when the future king of England say that something works then it becomes irrefutable evidence that it does work – for some people at least. So, the unholy Alliance tasked Dr Phelps to get Prince Charles on board as a Patron of the NICM in order to provide them with extra ‘credibility’ which will obviously lead to increased sales (you can read about it here – very interesting document). I don’t think that he fell for it, probably because he does not want to be linked to a bunch of known cranks down under. But if memory serves me correct I might have sent them a letter warning them about the NICM and this might also have played a role in his decision not to join Kerryn Phelps and her unholy alliance.

Another example closer to home. When the NHMRC published their review on homeopathy one of the affronted groups in Australia that called for its immediate withdrawal was the ‘Australian Traditional Medicine Society’ (ATMS). The vice-president, Teresa Mitchell-Paterson, also happens to work in one of Dr Phelps’s clinics where she provides her naturopathic services. Have a look at the ATMS website under modalities to see what kind of quackery they promote. I just don’t know, but if you employ someone that will defend and promote homeopathy at all costs, then surely, I can claim that Kerryn Phelps supports homeopathy?

If you are a well-known scientist and you allow a tobacco company to list your name on their website, or for that matter, on an anti-vaccination website, then surely the public can infer from this that you lend your support to their products or ideas? If you are listed as a spokesperson in a press release detailing a multimillion-dollar donation received from a complete crackpot then surely the public can infer that you support this person’s ideas? So, the unholy alliance received millions of dollars from Judy Jacka who is a esoteric energy healing crackpot with a healthy disliking of vaccinations and a love for homeopathy and all other quackery you can think of. Western Sydney University promptly made her a Honorary Fellow (because maybe she will then give them more money). Judy is part of the ‘Health Australia Party’ (HAP) also known as the ‘lunatic fringe movement’. So, if any journalist reads this please ask spokesperson Dr Phelps, WTF? Please explain!! (Ah, maybe Kerryn is an undercover HAP agent!!).

She is a well-known public figure and therefore has to be very careful about what she says in public. She only says what people want to hear, in this sense not unique, because this is what most politicians do. But if you really want to know who she is, then it is far better to have a look at what she, and the people she associates herself with, does. In that ‘very interesting’ document you’ll also see that they have worked for many years to get the Chinese Communist Party’s linked Beijing University of Chinese Medicine to open a TCM hospital in Sydney. And just recently I’ve read about a person who died in Sydney because of TCM/acupuncture – the article is called ‘Dressed-up quackery…’ And yet this unholy alliance wants to integrate TCM with modern healthcare (I have investigated this issue quite extensively and you can read about it here, here and here.).

Any comments, suggestions, tips ect. welcome, because there is a lot more to come!

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Like this:

Better Health! Excellent, let’s vote for Dr Kerryn Phelps. But hold your horses. While most people will think in terms of improved diagnostics and better, safer, less expensive medications and improved accessibility, others such as Dr Phelps have a different agenda. For some people, usually having some financial stake in alternative healthcare, ‘better health’ unfortunately means that they will exploit the current problems/deficiencies in the healthcare system to promote less effective, or even completely ineffective, medications to the general public. One can almost call this their ‘unique selling point’. But when a medication is completely ineffective none of the other issues (diagnostics, cost, safety etc) matters, and yet people such as Dr Phelps continue to promote this. In my humble opinion, a criminal activity, because ineffective treatments cause unnecessary harm and death.

But she is a clever one. As a well-known public figure, she cannot do all of the dirty work herself because she needs to keep her image squeaky clean. So, to get behind the swing of the bat, it is worthwhile to have a look at her collaborators in what I call, an ‘unholy Alliance’, and their dark world of deceit. Dr Phelps is an adjunct at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM), headed by Prof Alan Bensoussan. She is also part of the NICMs advisory board and states on her campaign website: “Dr Phelps is committed to teaching the next generation of doctors as Conjoint Professor at University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine and in the National Institute of Complementary Medicine at Western Sydney University.”

It is during these advisory board meetings, held in the herbal-essence filled back rooms at Western Sydney university, where they come up with their sinister plans of how to integrate ineffective treatments into the healthcare system. Let me put in plain language; ‘how to BS the public’. Let me explain at the hand of homeopathy (a next article will deal with vaccinations and traditional Chinese medicine).

Support for Homeopathy

Homeopaths are an interesting, although completely delusional, bunch of people – but they do have a very good sense of humour. They will for example take a substance, any substance (even imaginary ones), go into a state of delirium during a process called ‘proving’, and dilute the substance away – completely away. During this process they note their ‘symptoms/state of delirium/feelings’ which then becomes the indications, and like magic, the vial containing only solvent suddenly becomes a ‘medicine’. To understand their sense of humour, you just need to read about any ‘proving document’. Take for example the homeopathic remedy prepared from a Black hole. They affix a vial of alcohol to the viewing end of a telescope focused on Cygnus X-1’s location within the Cygnus constellation. After collecting the ‘substance’ they dilute it into oblivion with the delirious homeopaths taking this ‘medicine’ stating that it; “ … felt their teeth were “drawing inward.” So it makes perfectly sense that this homeopathic remedy is suitable to be prescribed for……..??

You also get homeopathic remedies prepared from; Excrementum caninum (yes, dog shit), condoms, colours, musical notes, Berlin wall etc. (Here you can find my top ten list of homeopathic remedies for 2017. If you can top any of these remedies, please let me know – I am busy compiling 2018’s list). One might now argue that all these examples are on the extremities of homeopathy, and yes sure, but it doesn’t really matter. You can also take any well-known medicinal herb, or even a real medicine such as an antibiotic, but as soon as you ‘prepare’ it according to the homeopathic principles, the medicine disappears which will render even the most effective antibiotic useless. The sad reality is that some homeopaths prescribe their remedies for serious conditions such as malaria and cancer which obviously leads to a lot of unnecessary harm and death.

Sure, the biggest risk is indirect, due to neglecting serious medical conditions, but there are also examples when homeopaths go into such as state delirium that they sometimes manage to get their dilutions wrong. For example; many babies died and hundreds were hospitalised in the US after a toxic substance (deadly nightshade) was not correctly diluted. Clearly homeopathy cannot possibly be included within the ‘Better Health” campaign promise?

So how does Dr Phelps support and exploit this? She operates a number of ‘integrative medicine’ clinics where naturopaths, who are known for their love of homeopathy and anti-vaccination tendencies, are employed. A couple of years ago Dr Phelps made the following comments in an article regarding the funding of homeopathy:

Start of excerpt

“Unfairly targeted?

But some doctors suggest homeopathy is being unfairly targeted.

“It smacks of a crusade to me,” says Professor Kerryn Phelps, president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA), which promotes “the integration of safe, evidence-based complementary medicines and therapies with current mainstream medical practice”.

She does not believe homeopathy is having the kind of impact on private health premiums Harvey fears, and says there are “bigger fish to fry” when it comes to fixing the healthcare system.

Phelps says homeopathy can be easily criticised because it has a relatively small evidence base.

But, she suggests orthodox treatments are not subject to the same level of scrutiny.

“The Journal of the American Medical Association earlier this year produced a meta-analysis of SSRI anti-depressants in mild to moderate depression and found them no better than placebo,” says Phelps, who is Conjoint Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales and a former president of the Australian Medical Association.

“If you are going to exclude treatments that don’t have an evidence base then we have to start looking at pharmaceuticals that don’t have an evidence base, surgical therapies that don’t have an evidence base.”

Matter of evidence

Dr Vicki Kotsirilos, who originally founded AIMA, says she is sympathetic to Harvey’s concerns but rejects some of his conclusions.

“To say that there is no evidence for homeopathy is actually incorrect and unfortunately a lot of people make those statements,” says the Melbourne-based GP, who points to evidence collected by the British Homeopathic Association.

“There have been systematic reviews that have shown that overall homeopathy is not anymore of benefit to placebo or of marginal benefit. But there have been some Cochrane Collaboration reviews that there is a little bit of research available for some therapies.”

She says some of the major studies quoted don’t properly take into account how homeopathy is used.

“When you prescribe homeopathy, it’s often individualised and you won’t use the same homeopathic remedy for one person with a particular disease to another person with the same disease,” says Kotsirilos.

She says homeopathy, and other complementary therapies, are particularly popular among patients who have suffered side-effects from medication, or where surgery is contraindicated.

“Out of all the complementary medicines it is the least understood, with the least amount of research,” says Kotsirilos, who calls for more funding for research.

“We need more research to be able to identify which patients might benefit from homeopathy and in what conditions, bearing in mind that there are people out there who choose to use this and we have to respect their choices.”

End of excerpt

(Vicki Kosirilos is obviously also part of this ‘alliance’ being a member of the NICM’s ‘Research Committee’). A couple of years ago the NHMRC did a thorough study on homeopathy and found it to be, surprise-surprise, ineffective and recommended that the public should not use homeopathy because they are putting their health at risk. This the Alliance cannot have, because it flies in the face of their plans to integrate ineffective remedies. The director of the NICM, Alan Bensoussan published a press release highlighting the ‘methodological flaws’ and that it doesn’t agree with all international reports on homeopathy etc. But it is during these advisory board meetings where they decide how and who should respond to this unfair ‘attack’ on their sinister plans (here you can read the minutes of one of their meetings). This job usually falls in the lap of Carl Gibson, the CEO of Complementary Medicine Australia – their attack dog.

He promptly published that the NHMRC report is “fatally flawed” and ends his press release with the prophetic words “Homeopathy has been around for hundreds of years, and I am sure will be around a lot longer than some of the critics.” Translated it simply means “We (Dr Phelps, the NICM and their whole alliance) do not accept that a complementary medicine is ineffective, and we will do whatever we can to continue to protect, promote and sell it”. They also lodged a complaint at the Commonwealth Ombudsman, claiming that the NHMRC report “…is inaccurate, highly misleading to the public and unjustly damaging to the credibility of the homeopathy sector. It is therefore essential that all published documents relating to the Homeopathy Review are rescinded in their entirety.” (there is some uncertainty about whether this complaint was actually lodged or not).

All that these people need to do is to plant the seed of doubt in the mind of the public, which is enough to ensure that people will continue to buy these ineffective remedies. Dr Phelps will continue to make real healthcare suspect, claim that her ‘medications’ are all natural, safe and evidence-based and that it will also save you a lot of money. But in reality, she and her Alliance does not give a hoot that people, including young children and babies, die because of what they are promoting – for them it is all about money!! (A good example of the type of people you need in such an Alliance is Prof Gregory Kolt. He was even found guilty of fraud; “As a result, the defendant fraudulently obtained a total of $5,864.15 from the Authority over a period of 14 months. When the matter was investigated, the defendant provided false information and documents.”)

A vote for Dr Phelps is a vote to give this unholy Alliance a foot in the federal door. She will provide easier access and opportunities for this Alliance to lobby government ministers in order to integrate their ineffective remedies with conventional healthcare. This, in my view, will be a travesty for the healthcare system. While homeopathy is one of the easier fake medications to debunk, Dr Phelps’s involvement and impact unfortunately gets a lot murkier. In a next article I will focus on vaccinations and how this alliance has infiltrated the World Health Organisation who now promotes, you guessed it, homeopathy and all sorts of other disproven and unproven traditional medicines.

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This question will probably enrage many of Dr Phelps’s loyal supporters, but the tallest trees catch the most wind, and with Dr Phelps putting her hand up to run as independent in the all-important Wentworth by-election, a good look at who she is and what she stands for is warranted.

A progressive hero

For many she is a hero and role model for a modern progressive society, and someone who might actually steady the ship in these tumultuous of political times. She is currently married to Jackie Stricker-Phelps and is a well-known advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) rights. “Dr Phelps has been at the forefront of the struggle for LGBTQI inclusion and equality for two decades.”

She is also a well-known GP, was a former president of the Australian Medical Association and has chosen “Better Health” to feature on top of her list of campaign promises. According to her campaign website: “Dr Phelps is committed to teaching the next generation of doctors as Conjoint Professor at University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine and in the National Institute of Complementary Medicine [NICM] at Western Sydney University.”

Recently I also noticed an interesting tweet from Dr Phelps which prompted me to write this article; “Voting for me as an Independent in #WentworthByElection will help to ensure the religious Right don’t get their way on increasing religious-based discrimination. I stand for social justice, inclusion and community harmony.” Here is another article where she expresses her views on “religious extremists”.

So here we have three aspects; LGBTQI+ rights, health and religion. Although not exhaustive, these aspects are defining of who and what Dr Phelps is. Below are my thoughts in an attempt to get my head around it.

Kerryn Phelps celebrating the ‘Yes’ vote for marriage equality

Historical order in society

If you are a human being then you will probably live with or near other human beings in what is commonly known as a ‘society’. As such, it qualifies you to participate in safeguarding society to ensure its long-term survival. The most important aspect for survival is maintaining law and order – people need order. History is littered with examples of what happens when law and order break down and it is easy to imagine what would happen when an isolated society decide to give its citizens a lawless week; no laws, no police, nothing – that society will not survive very long. That this societal necessity clashes with individual wishes and needs, and that some may find it (excessively) restrictive is a given, but based on having some sort of societal order we’ve survived the roller-coaster trip up till now.

Western society is historically based on the Christian order system, or let’s call it God-given order, which, as we all know, has been exploited and abused over the centuries to enrich a few and to abuse and enslave many. This in part resulted in the enlightenment and also effected the steady splintering of Christianity into various sub-groups, each with their own and sometimes quite divergent doctrines. Without unity, confusion reigns leading to chaos within the ranks which resulted in this splintering effect going into overdrive over the past century, bringing us to today, where we see thousands of different Christian denominations.

The steady splintering of Christianity over the ages

Even though Christianity has been shattered into a thousand pieces, the Christian spiritually lingers on in a watered-down generalised form in a significant part of Western societies (a well-known Christian saying is; ‘God’s law is written on our hearts’, and this in various shapes and sizes lingers on). Be as it may, the historical Christian order focus on society above the individual and the laws are literally set in stone – it cannot change (but it can be abused). Most laws in Western countries are still based on the Christian order system although this is changing fast. This situation is of course ripe to be exploited by domestic, or even foreign, role players to use to their advantage.

Transitioning to a new order…..

Many people have exploited these historical (and current) transgressions of the traditional system to advocate for a god-less order (or people-given order), based on the humanist individual ‘rights’ as opposed to the traditional individually ‘oppressive’ system. Dr Phelps, as far as I can tell, can probably be called a general in this movement and is indeed one of the more outspoken members who is opposing the influence of the last remnants of the Christian order system in Australia. Her personal life speaks for itself, being an open-minded progressive lesbian, who questions anything that reeks like Christianity or the protection of religious freedom. She not only proposes alternatives but also lives it, hence the promotion of all the various alternatives to the traditional (Christian) family structure and subsequent critique on ‘religious freedom’.

During this power struggle for supremacy (support via votes) the strategy of using emotional pleas for equality and love and the promise of individual freedom and future wealth usually wins out over the long-term survival of society argument. The focus is on the individual and its laws are ever-changing depending on who managed to garner the most support for a given idea. This is of course also a direct result of our aggressive capitalistic ideology, with people making more money when the focus is on the individual rather on what is best for the long-term survival of society.

A comparison illustrating the main differences between the two systems. Here you can find a more comprehensive comparison chart describing the humanistic system as “wilfully autonomous with self-centred desires” compared to “submissive to God’s will and desires to serve others”

There is unfortunately no room for two dominant order systems in any given society and while these two opposing systems battle it out, it is causing a lot of friction. A good example of this friction is the drama unfolding around the US supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. The new order obviously loves to jump on any misstep (even though it is not proven yet) from the Knights of Morality in order to lure more people into their camp. This is known as the “culture wars” with the one side who wants to stick to a generalised Christian-based order (conservatives) and the other side who wants anything but. This should however not be treated lightly, because in the US this ‘war of opposing systems’ can quite easily spill over in civil unrest or even a physical war. But as long as there is enough ‘food and water’ it will probably remain a non-physical conflict. Be as it may, whenever humans are involved there will always be exploitation and corruption, so all is obviously not perfect with this new ‘who says’ order system.

….and some of its problems

The new order is becoming increasing chaotic as can be seen in the long list of alternative sexualities, or states of being, with the latest sexuality that I’ve come across called, eco-sexuality or sexecology, which uses “ideas from different regions such as India and their idea of seven chakras to get closer to the earth”. Because ‘who says’ that a male and female belongs together? Well, the old system says, but then again, go to 10 different denominations and you’ll get 10 different answers. So why can’t a female and, uhm, the Eiffel tower belong together? With the new system it is impossible to draw a line, because it is all based on; ‘freedom of choice’ do what you want as long as you don’t infringe on the rights of another individual – not sure how the Eiffel tower feels about this.

The current deteriorating situation can only be described as sexual lawlessness, and I am sometimes amazed at the things people can up come with. It is as if there is such an aversion against the old system that anything goes, people will even shoot themselves and/or society in the foot just to show that they are on the right side of the battle line and not bound by those shackles of the old Christian system (the massive sex industry, in all its forms, feeds off this aversion and on the ‘freedom of choice’ mantra, but when you’re caught in that world, it is a very dark place where many atrocities occur – all the while some individuals enrich themselves). These aspects are also clearly visible when it comes to the other ‘big’ ethical questions of our time e.g. abortion, euthanasia (which based on our increasing individualism and capitalism will be terribly abused – the ABC’s Four Corners program ‘Who Cares?’ is worth a watch in this regard).

With the ever-changing laws anyone can now come up with just about anything, and if you question any of it, you will be sued for discrimination or defamation. Lawyers are making a killing with this new blasphemy laws, called hate speech. Dr Phelps is known to eagerly use their services to get what she wants. A former minister for health said that she had no specialist training (which is true) but faced the threat of legal action because being a ‘specialist’ is the public image she wants to portray. Combined with her promotion of sexual ‘freedom’ in all its forms and peoples’ immense fear to question this, makes her pretty much untouchable, and in my view, quite dangerous. To be honest, it is becoming difficult to converse with, look in the direction of, or even speak freely in Australia because you might just infringe on somebody’s newly discovered rights, which will be eagerly pointed out by those individuals abusing the system and who makes money from it (choose your words very carefully, actually, nowadays it is best to just accept everything, shut up and smile).

Without keeping those people exploiting the system in check, chaos will follow and the notion that this is progressive is questionable. In my view it is currently regressive and a return to the chaotic dark ages, even though it is being sold to the public as moving towards an egalitarian utopia. Unfortunately, this chaos will inevitably and steadily spread into other areas of society. In this article I will only discuss healthcare and how Dr Phelps, who champions ‘progressiveness’ and ‘freedom of choice’, is exploiting the system and how she and her collaborators have opened the door to foreign influence on Australian soil.

Chaos in healthcare

One striking example of how the new individualistic system is being exploited is the growing anti-vaccination movement. “We don’t care about society, it is our right under our ‘freedom of choice’ not to vaccinate!” Individual rights trumps survival of society. It just shows how easily the system can be manipulated and how easy it is the indoctrinate people. I am not sure what Dr Phelps’ stance is on vaccination because it depends a little bit on who she is talking to. When directly and publicly questioned, she clearly supports vaccination. And yet, she associates herself with known anti-vaxxers such as Judy Jacka, who donated millions to promote their cause (integration of disproven remedies with conventional healthcare) at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM). She is listed as a contact person regarding this donation which tells me that Dr Phelps not only accepts the donation but also everything Judy Jacka, who is an energy healer, stands for. And this is typical. When in public she will say what most people want to hear, but when in the company of ‘like-minded’ in those smoke filled back rooms it is the exact opposite.

A typical anti-vaccination propaganda poster – this is wrong on so many levels

Although Christianity as an institution will probably disappear in Australia within the next few decades, people’s spirituality will remain (and maybe a few Christians), all the while absorbing aspects from different spiritual ‘ideas’ which just happens to be around at the time. But these ‘new’ ideas can obviously be placed there. The fact that chakras, Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) etc. are all products of an ancient world, deeply rooted in rituals, mysticism and spirituality makes it perfect to gradually replace Christianity, or what is left of it, in order to fill the growing spiritual void. And this is where people such as Dr Phelps is making a killing – quite literally.

Dr Phelps has a number of so-called ‘Integrative medicine’ clinics (on her campaign website called ‘multidisciplinary clinics’) where many unproven and disproven remedies are being sold to the public by providing misleading (sometimes false) information. She then feeds on the public’s indoctrinated right of ‘freedom of choice’ to increasingly buy into this ‘integrative medicine’ movement. The increasing sales figures are then used as evidence that her ‘medicine’ works – the well-known appeal to popularity argument. Any valid scientific critique is then refuted by using this argument. She is now also assisting others to start similar clinics all across Sydney.

This ‘regressive’ form of healthcare is nothing more than a smokescreen for quackery, because many of these remedies are based on magical principles and ancient ‘wisdom’ and has scientifically been shown to be ineffective. But for these people it is ‘whatever sells’. For example: Dr Phelps was president of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association which at a time listed TCM, Homeopathy, acupuncture, etc. as part of integrative medicine. Her clinics currently uses naturopathy (which usually includes homeopathy), herbal medicine etc.

But I do want to focus on her association with the NICM at Western Sydney University (WSU) where she teaches the next generation of ‘open minded’ doctors. The NICM is so open-minded and progressive that they promote rhino horn as effective TCM medicine. In their world of magic, rhino horn is excellent to: “Clear heat, subdue Yang and cool blood, relieves fearfulness, detoxifying.” And can thus be used for: “High fever, sun stroke, trauma, mania, convulsion, sore throat, epilepsy, febrile disease, infectious disease, macula, bad skin conditions, subcutaneous bleeding.”

One of their business partners was even caught and jailed for having many kilograms of endangered animal parts, including rhino horn, in his possession – and they still work with him. And then she tweets about her opposition to live animal exports “We must bring this cruel trade to an end.” Yes, sure but what about the slaughter of endangered animals to feed the insatiable TCM industry and their unquenchable thirst for more money? It’s about votes! “Polling confirms live export is a hot issue for voters in critical #Wentworth by-election” (this is why I am really sceptical about her supportive stance on vaccinations).

The sad reality when people promote ancient healthcare systems such as TCM

Remedies that have been debunked over and over and which cause harm and death, such as homeopathy are being defended, promoted and sold to the public.

To exploit this new spiritual awakening and interest in mysticism on a global scale they have actively infiltrated the regulators and even the World Health Organisation (WHO) who now recommends that these magical remedies be integrated with conventional healthcare in all its member states. For the first time in the history of the WHO they will now endorse TCM!! This is a travesty of epic proportions with many concerned scientists fearing that many people will die and many endangered species will be wiped out. Their modus operandi was, and still is, very similar to how the mafiaoperates.

The big problem with the NICM and Dr Kerryn Phelps is how they have colluded with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and how they are currently facilitating the CCP’s plans to exert its (soft) power globally (you can read about this investigation here, here and here). This, in part, is also why they influenced the WHO to endorse TCM – because they are toeing the party line of the CCP. Quite recently a new TCM hospital operated by Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (controlled by the CCP) have opened its doors in Westmead, Sydney. From here they will plan and execute further incursions into the Australian healthcare system. Below is a number of headlines regarding the WHO decision to endorse TCM;

$170b Global Chinese medicine market behind University of Western Sydney deal with Beijing

State-sponsored quackery. China is ramping up its promotion of its ancient medical arts. That is dangerous for humans as well as rhinos

Dr Phelps’ partner in crime, Prof Alan Bensoussan, being recognised in the ‘Great Hall of the People’ China, for his ‘outstanding’ work to globalise TCM in all its forms

Dr Phelps and partners will talk the scientific talk when in public or amongst scientists, but behind closed doors they are just different animals altogether. For them the ‘money is in the magic’, and their challenge is how to more effectively exploit the system making use of society’s increasing individualism, and to be honest, increasing ignorance or benightedness. A relatively old article says it all; “Open-minded consumers driving a $2.3bn industry” This industry is currently worth around $5bn/annum.

Conclusions

Don’t we live in interesting times, with a culture war being waged while being fuelled and exploited from both sides to further the vested interests of a few individuals with the resulting harm caused to society. In the movies, the hero usually give their lives to protect society and the villain ends up behind bars. In reality hero’s don’t exist or is very few and far in between. But when you intentionally mislead society, like ‘Dr’ Phelps is doing on a grand scale, then I don’t care on which side of the culture war she’s on, she is no hero she is villain. She and her associates (especially ‘Prof’ Alan Bensoussan) have vested interests which causes her and her partners to make a lot of money by misleading the public causing a lot of harm and even death. And then to think that she states “Dr Phelps is committed to teaching the next generation of doctors…”

It is this ‘who says’ mentality that questions why you should treat diabetes type 1 with insulin and not with some ancient spirituality-based remedy – be open minded, be progressive. These parents became so delusional and confused by the ‘who says’ mentality that they believed that they can cure their young son’s diabetes type 1 with ‘slapping therapy’, which aims to restore the flow of Chi (life force) through meridians. Unfortunately, the boy died. But luckily the ‘therapist’, the clinic providing this treatment and its director have now been taken to court, but unfortunately, the people who are responsible for creating and exploiting this chaos, the NICM and ‘Dr’ Phelps, are still getting away with it (they are intricately involved with this clinic). Hopefully their day in court will come, but for what it is worth, both ‘Dr’ Phelps and the NICM won the Bent Spoon (BS) award for quackery in 2008 and 2017, respectively.

The total extent of the damage that is being done by ‘Dr’ Phelps is impossible to know, but if she wins this election and has influence on government level then the healthcare system is in for a very tough time. If she can mislead young children about the effectiveness of ancient remedies while she knows that it is ineffective, she’ll be able to mislead just about anyone regarding anything. The exploitation of the new order of which she is a champion is a threat to the long-term survival of society on more than one level. Don’t be fooled by her thin veneer of respectability and caring attitude. Al Capone opened soup kitchens during the great depression where he provided food, drink and clothes to the poor, free of charge. But does this make him a good man? No, it was a smokescreen.

It is 2018 and we should be able to come up with better ways to protect society. Keep these dangerous individuals in check. To use her words “I call BS”.

(a shortened, more in-depth version focusing only on healthcare will follow)

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Let’s face it. Homeopaths have an excellent sense of humour and thumbs-up for their superb acting abilities. Because of their truly unique skills-set, some people have suggested that they are not really acting at all, but that they are visitors from a parallel universe. Be as it may, there is something amiss, because very few people from our universe would be able to keep a straight face while explaining to a patient that taking homeopathic dog shit will help against their ‘self-disgust’. Or that a remedy made from condoms will ease their feelings ‘of being restricted’ (cure claustrophobia). Recently there was even a Canadian homeopath, ‘Dr’ Anke Zimmermann, who prescribed dog saliva to a child that growled (behavioural problems). They are a funny bunch, and clearly, they have a thing for dogs, so I just don’t know, I have to go with the parallel universe theorem.

A typical zoo in the parallel universe of homeopaths

The list of their weird remedies just goes on and on – it is just out of this world. How about homeopathic remedies made from a Black hole (yes, homeopaths have visited), English sun (apparently the sun actually shines in their England), water diluted in, yes, water or…… here are some weeeeeird things they prescribe as ‘medicine’. This by itself should be enough for Hollywood to at least investigate the possibility of producing a comedy. It would however be best to cast real homeopaths (how about it ‘Dr’ Zimmerman?) because I don’t think any human being will be able to play the part. But then again, maybe Gwyneth Paltrow? or if the producers wants a documentary style comedy, maybe HRH Prince of Wales (but are we sure that they are from our universe?)

Homeopaths also have a thing for cows. Here we witness the celebration after the first successful production of the homeopathic remedy ‘Excrementum vaccinum’. (English: cow dung)

What is homeopathy? Well, it is a hoax that’s been around for about 200 years. You dilute any substance you can think of into oblivion, including imaginary substances, and then you sell it as medicine – simple, (in)effective and highly profitable. Hundreds of years ago the healthcare system was pretty much non-existent and patients admitted to ‘hospital’ were more likely to die than patients who stayed at home. The reason for this? Healthcare was so terrible that your body had to fight the disease as well as the healthcare system, so it was far less risky to just stay at home.

Bloodletting, as a cure all, comes to mind (cause of death of the former American president George Washington) but also the eye watering tendency to drill holes in peoples’ skulls (trepanation) to cure whatever. As the theory goes the possibility exist that during one of these drilling exercises a patient, screaming in anguish, hit the exact note and volume that it ribbed a hole in the fabric that separates our universes. This is seen as day zero when homeopaths entered our universe and started with the practice of giving patients, zero, as medicine. This is also the likely reason why we can buy homeopathic remedies made from various musical notes (day zero is still celebrated in April each year during Homeopathy Awareness Week.)

Because homeopathic remedies contain zero, a sick person only had to fight the disease. Add to this the well-known placebo effect and it is understandable that people actually thought that it was effective. So, at the time the results were good – no, not really, one should rather say the results of ‘conventional healthcare’ was terrible, but nevertheless, this counterintuitive notion gave these visitors a foot in the door.

A homeopath illustrating how cycling works in their universe.

Now we are 200 years later. The disease model (disease caused by bacteria, viruses, mutations, ect.) antibiotics and other life-saving medicines and surgical interventions have been developed and is continuously being improved. Science has made huge progress and although not perfect, modern healthcare has brought us tremendous benefits whilst homeopathy is still zero – there has been absolutely no progress whatsoever.

But now for the black part of this comedy. The reason why homeopaths are here is unclear. Some suggest that the portal is only one-way and they simply cannot get back while others have proposed that they have a far more sinister agenda. They were send here to destroy our universe. If you think about it, what is the most powerful weapon out there? It’s not a nuke, it is confusion, and spreading confusion is the one thing that homeopaths excel at. For example: in our universe we have a thing called ‘dose-response curve’ – which in plain language means that a bigger quantity of a specific substance will have a bigger biological effect, up to a point where you overdose and die. But they advocate the exact opposite – the smaller the quantity the bigger the effect. It’s like saying the less money I have the richer I am.

Some suggest that homeopaths are here because cooking is apparently quite difficult in their universe

This implies that the more you dilute a substance the bigger the chance that you might overdose and die, something that has actually been tested when hundreds of people deliberately ‘overdosed’ in protest against politicians and regulators. No biological effect was observed and the call was made to ban these imposters and their ridiculous remedies. But homeopaths are on a mission and they have steadily infiltrated the political elite and the regulators since their arrival 200 years ago.

It is quite easy to see which politicians are from the other side. Politicians saying one thing and doing the exact opposite is in all likelihood from over there. Regulators claiming that they are here to protect the public against fake medicine and then allow these fake medicines to be sold unchecked, have also been infiltrated and are aiding homeopaths to achieve their mission objectives.

Politicians from the other side are sometimes quite easy to spot.

The results of their mission thus far are that more and more people are turning their backs on evidence-based healthcare (of great concern is the growing number of anti-vaxxers) even though many people got hurt and unfortunately many died – and this is the very black part of this comedy. Politicians and regulators seemingly does not give a hoot and finds it okay when adults die at the hands of homeopaths. But sometimes they do act, but only sometimes, and then only when children got hurt or died.

To test and see if they have also infiltrated our bastions of knowledge a.k.a. universities, I popped an email to the Department of Homeopathy, University of Johannesburg. In theory they should be studying why people from our universe continue to fall for homeopathy and they should advise against using it. So, I asked them for some advice about what to give my 7yo son before we enter a malaria region. The answer from UJ, who also runs a Homeopathic clinic for orphans in Soweto, was that I can buy a remedy at a local pharmacy that contains – nothing! Well, to be honest, I first had to translate because sometimes they still speak in their Alien language. So here are their exact ‘words’:

Some English in there but for the rest gibberish. Fully translated it simply means ‘nothing’. So clearly UJ has been infiltrated (they also have a chiropractic department).

Another university is Western Sydney University and specifically the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM). I have long known that most people working at the NICM are from somewhere else – they are not from our world (because of their weirdness they’ve won the Bent Spoon award in 2017). But what was quite surprising was that they have actually taken over the whole management of the University. Highlighting the issues at the NICM was met with a ‘we could not care less’ attitude. They even promoted the NICM to become a fully-fledged ‘health institute’ from where they are continuing to spread confusion into the world. They have even managed to infiltrate the World Health Organisation who now recommends homeopathy to be integrated with conventional medicine.

So, there we have it. Homeopaths are everywhere and they have no plans to go back to where they came from. We are stuck with some very funny homeopaths and their hilarious ‘remedies’, but at the same time, also the tragedies that plays out in many homes across the globe. For me a very good script for a black comedy, but I am afraid that stopping this madness will be as difficult as finding a portal and sending these quacks back to their universe.

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To get into the spirit of silly season, why don’t we have a look at the silliest of man’s creations – homeopathy. So, here goes, enjoy!

A homeopath will take a substance (or an imaginary substance), go into a state of delirium during a process called ‘proving’, dilute the (imaginary) substance into oblivion and then sell it as a remedy to the public – and regulators are happy for them to do so. During the proving stage, they document their ‘symptoms’ which then magically becomes the ‘indications’ listed on the remedy, according to their ‘like-cures-like’ principle. What usually cracks me up is the starting ‘substances’ that they use, what homeopaths claim their remedies work for, and the fact that homeopaths can keep a straight face while explaining or writing about their remedies (read any ‘proving’ document).

A big fan of homeopathy trying to steal a child’s bubbles because he ran out of Fairy Liquid (dish-washing soap) – yes, they make homeopathic remedies from anything

Due to the immense number and diversity of remedies out there, I’ve decided to create three categories. 1. Ridiculous – the starting material or ‘substance’ is nothing which they then dilute into oblivion; 2. Super-gross – substances where you desperately hope that they did indeed dilute everything into oblivion; 3. Weird – you just cannot understand how homeopaths can think of such stuff (there is a huge number of remedies in this category).

For some of the remedies I’ve copied parts of their ‘provings’ (unedited) so that people who do not understand the stupidity of it all, get a glimpse of what’s going on in the deluded (diluted) minds of homeopaths. So here is the list (thanks for the many suggestions via Twitter.)

“The remedy was prepared by Rowan Jackson and astronomer, Peter Lipscomb, using an 8″ telescope, Meade LX90 aperture telescope. A vial of alcohol was affixed to the viewing end as the telescope was focused on Cygnus X-1’s location within the Cygnus constellation. Twenty provers took the remedy administered in 30C potencies.”

Uses: “This remedy seems to have a global effect on the body. If you were tracing the sensation under a physical symptom you might expect it to lead to a pulling in or drawing inward, constriction sensation. Headaches are felt as constricting, as if a band or a vise or as if will burst. Heart and chest symptoms are felt as constricting and tightening. Even the extremities can feel tight and constricting. Provers felt their teeth were “drawing inward.” With the drawing in sensation, they would often feel that there was a stone or lump inside (this spot of denseness within their body). Provers had the sensation of a lump or stone in their stomach or abdomen. They could also feel as if there were a “sinking” sensation inside. Often they would explain the sensation as heaviness.”

“I had a dream, as usual, and this guy who comes into my dreams, turns up and says, “Nuala, are you aware that vacuum is the space between heaven and earth? Prove Vacuum!” So I woke up and said, “Yeah, right. How?” I thought about it for a number of months and he came back to me in a dream and said, “This is very simple. What you want to do is get a bottle and put some alcohol in it, then vacuum the bottle, and you will get the effect of vacuum on the alcohol.” He has said that type of thing to me before in dreams, like that remedies are the effect of something on alcohol. “

Uses: “I know that a lot of people died in Britain as a result of that flu. So I started giving Vacuum for it and straight away it worked.”

3. Imaginary substances (hard to come by or extremely dangerous substances, such as Plutonium/Uranium, and apparently also ‘Unicorn’)

Photographic evidence that Unicorns do exist

“Bearing in mind Crotalus cascavella’s themes of vengeance and desire to kill with a knife, I asked him: “Did you feel like avenging yourself from your wife’s first fling? Would you feel a sense of release if you knifed him in the back? His words immediately evoke in me the theme of the light in Plutonium: he has lost his inner light and refuses the light emanating from others, from outside. Plutonium desires transcendence for itself and for the external world through self-illumination; it wants to be a powerful light which brings order to chaos through its own vibration.”

A Homeopath’s dog trained to collect important homeopathic ‘substances’. Homeopaths finds this disgusting, hence the dog, but okay to give to the unsuspecting public.

Uses: self-disgust; domination and extreme abuse; suppression of anger with hatred; low self-esteem with dependency; In this remedy, there are dreams/thoughts of excrements and toilets, in contrast to Lac caninum and Lyssinum. Mind; dreams; excrements/dog’s excrements/ toilet; sitting on/ vomiting; excrements; Ailments from sexual abuse and rape, Delusion or image that body parts/ arms/ legs are smaller, and shortened; Dreams of dogs/ cats, felines

5. Condoms (Latex Condom) – New or used? I guess both, because homeopaths really care about the environment; “Rubber is a disposable substance that we use and throw away but it does not just go away. It persists as mountains of burning tyres or as condoms washed up on polluted beaches.”

Uses: feelings of being restricted/claustrophobic; separation/disconnected from people, difficulties with communication, disconnected from feelings etc.

6. Intestinal secretion of a sperm whale (Ambra grisea). It is unknown if homeopaths only use sperm whales who died after ingesting copious quantities of used condoms – see above (homeopaths will then call this a ‘combination remedy’) or if they hunt the poor whales themselves.

A Homeopath collection a decaying sperm whale’s intestinal fluids and any ingested used condoms

Uses: Its most well-known keynote is mortification from needing to use a public bathroom due to painful shyness. There is an out-of-proportion timidity about being in the presence of strangers or in social situations. It is said that these individuals often experience premature aging, may be globally anxious, and have a propensity for coughs.

Uses: No sooner does night come on than I am a prey to such dreadfully sinful desires that drive me mad (in a woman). And: Weakness or loss of memory, esp. for names; feels as if going insane; terrible dread of the night season owing to aggravation of all symptoms then; despairs of recovery.

I never knew! A famous homeopath, known in Germany as ‘The Hoff’, collecting pieces of the Berlin Wall for the treatment of depression. That it works, is evidenced by The Hoff’s happy (or non-depressed) appearance.

9. South Pole of a Magnet. (Magnetis polus australis – attenuations of media saturated with emanations of the pole.)

Uses of musical notes; A general diuretic; good for edematous tissues, especially suited for pulmonary and cardiac edema; cardiac regulator and tonic, detoxifier, calmative and tranquilizer. Good for distress, feelings of inner conflict, avoidance of change, and a weakened spirit.

Uses of the colour Blue: A catarrhal remedy, good for sore throats and tired speaking voices; a stimulant to the thyroid and parathyroid; good for substance abuse cases where the patient wants to stop smoking, drinking, or overeating; good for neck and shoulder pain. Good for lack of creative expression, lack of willpower to complete tasks, integrity issues, malicious gossipers, liars, and timid, shy communicators.

Some comments

It is actually impossible to come up with a Top Ten because there are way too many crazy homeopathic remedies out there, such as; dolphin song, radionics, hoover dust, light of Venus (or the moon), pig’s milk (or dolphin’s milk), X-rays, English sun, water (called new water) ‘unicorn’ (“apparently they sit around a vial of water thinking about unicorns to infuse the unicorn energy” – I couldn’t find any references for this one) etc. Therefore, it might be a good idea to prepare an “annual top ten”- listing only remedies that was invented in that given year.

Although these lists are meant to be funny, it does serve the important purpose of creating public awareness. The other side of the coin is that people do get hurt and even die because of homeopathy. Most fatalities are due to neglecting serious medical conditions, but many deaths have also been directly attributed to homeopathic remedies. Homeopaths do use highly toxic substances (arsenic, deadly nightshade etc.) and if they screw up their dilutions, people die – as was tragically shown with the death of 10 infants recently.

It remains to be such a pity that so many politicians, regulators (such as the TGA in Australia – 100% funded by industry incl. homeopaths) and some universities (notably WSU and UJ) simply look the other way, allow homeopaths to continue to mislead the public or even promote homeopathy. The simple reason for this is vested interests, which usually means – money.

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And we thought that the ‘Hogwarts School of Magic’ only existed on the big screen. But, this type of school is actually real. There are quite a number of them currently operating in Australia, where bright-eyed, impressionable teenagers are taught how to manipulate energy fields in order to banish ‘evil spirits’ (or disease), and how to elevate out of their despondent earthly existence into an enchanted state of eternal health and happiness – like flying for the first time on a broomstick (or smoking a joint). It will therefore come as no surprise, that the game of Quidditch, from the Harry Potter movies, is indeed being played at some of these modern schools of magic. The Tri-wizard cup was even won by Western Sydney University in 2013. A real-life fantasy world.

To run around on a field with a broomstick between your legs is, I guess, okay, and not strange at all. It is good exercise, but you are not suddenly going to take off (at least not without a joint), because ‘strangely’ enough this only happens in the movies (or if you are completely stoned). So, for the rest of it, none of it is real – it is all a hoax. And this is now problematic, because all parents would agree that we want the best education for our children. But this is also where we tend to stop our involvement and we do not always ask the important question of; what is actually being taught at these schools? There are many reasons for this, one of them being that we tend to trust that government will protect us from fraudsters. So, when these schools are government funded and regulated, and especially, when they provide them with a stamp of approval via various accreditation schemes, this is usually enough to put our minds at ease – we trust the system!

Unfortunately, some of these schools provide government accredited courses in magic. For example; children are being taught to manipulate ‘energy’, yes, without a wand (although I am not always so sure), but with the use of needles, crystals and various herbs such as the screaming mandrake (oh no wait, that was in the movie).

Specific examples of these courses include; Bachelor in Chinese medicine, chiropractic and osteopathy at RMIT University, Bachelor of Health Science (Naturopathy – includes homeopathy) at Endeavour College, Bachelor of traditional Chinese medicine at Western Sydney University and Bachelor of Health Science in traditional Chinese medicine at the University of Technology Sydney. The Southern School of Natural Therapies explains that their accredited course in Chinese Medicine; “is an ancient, holistic form of medicine that connects the mind, body, spirit. Chinese medicine believes that the body is made up of Qi – energy which permeates the whole body and flows through our meridians. Chinese medicine aims to stimulate the meridians, producing effects on different organs and systems within the body to restore balance and harmony” – this is pure magic!

This is what our kids are being taught at these schools, and unfortunately, this is pure fantasy because this ‘energy’, which is at the foundation of all of these pseudoscientific healthcare systems, simply do not exist. But, this ‘energy’ do indeed attract large numbers of students, because all of us are fascinated by magic. Regrettably, those students who actually believe in the magic show, tends to pay a significant amount of money to learn ‘magic’, and once they realise that it’s an elaborate government supported hoax, many simply tend to continue practicing magic. Because, by now, they have incurred a lot of debt, they have lost a lot of time, and they don’t want to be branded a drop-out or loser (sure, there will also be true believers amongst them). Hence, the problem of modern day ‘medical magicians’ will continue to be with us and might even surge, if the government continue to legitimise it via their various accreditation schemes.

And this brings me to accreditation, which is arguably a big part of the problem. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) recently invited submissions for their “Independent Review of Accreditation Systems within the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professions”. The ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’ (FSM) organisation did submit a detailed report highlighting their many concerns when accreditation is given to these schools of magic. This report was unfortunately deemed ‘out of scope’ by the COAG Health Council which implies that they are quite happy to continue to mislead students and their parents (and this can destroy families), as well as the patients who are on the receiving end of these completely ineffective magical treatments. Many patients do indeed get hurt and some even die, as was tragically illustrated by a practitioner whose magical ‘Slapping Therapy’ did not cure a 6yo boy from his type-1 diabetes.

Below you will find the Executive Summary of FSMs submission (with permission), and here you can find the full submission. But the question remains; why do the government continue to bestow undue credibility and continue to legitimise ‘medical magic’ by providing accreditation to these courses in Australia?

“Executive Summary

Accreditation is antecedent to, and inextricably bound together with, practitioner registration. This submission raises concerns about registered alternative medicine (AltMed) practitioners, accusing the present accreditation system of failing to protect the public through its legitimising poor quality, belief-based, rather than evidence-based, education and on-going training of chiropractors, osteopaths and Chinese medicine/acupuncturists.

FSM is aware that some higher education institutes and continuing professional development courses give credibility to pseudoscience. Examples of pseudoscience include chiropractic (subluxation theory, Kinesiology, Retained Neonatal Reflex and Webster Technique, osteopathy (Osteopathy of the Cranial Field and Visceral Manipulation) and Chinese Medicine (Acupuncture and the teaching of “Qi”, energy blockages that cause disease, as a fact).

FSM also remains concerned with the accreditation process supervised by AHPRA and its Boards.

FSM alleges that:

A. the training of registered AltMed practitioners:

is of low quality;

is based on pseudo-scientific concepts that reject germ theory as the cause of disease;

teach invalid diagnostic technique;

includes potentially dangerous interventions, continued in the ongoing training of practitioners;

wastes considerable public funding allocated to universities which teach these unscientific courses; and

undermine the efforts of evidence-based practitioners in their communities;

do not, in respect of exaggerated claims and advertising, behave in an ethical manner;

create considerable confusion for patients with chronic ailments; and

focus their ongoing training on building their practices rather than on the needs of patients.

This report also raises concerns about pseudoscience-based courses, that may attract VET-help fees, such as reflexology, homeopathy, aromatherapy and reiki, that are advertised on Government websites.

C. Government websites are providing undeserved credibility for discredited AltMed.

Underserved credibility is given to discredited AltMed courses including Reflexology, Aromatherapy, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Reiki that may attract VET-help fees and are advertised on Government training websites.

Using acupuncture as an example, along with valid research findings, informed opinions and advice from medical experts, this report investigates the teachings in one high-profile accredited course and the impact and costs of this intervention on health care. While this report focuses on acupuncture, the same concerns can be extrapolated to other domains of pseudo-science, which is in both accredited university and continuing professional development courses. It also recommends that the scope of practice of AltMed practitioners should be limited to what they can advertise, to further protect patients from invalid diagnosis and belief-based interventions.

While ALL unregistered AltMed practitioners are NOT practicing any form of evidence-based medicine, (reflexology, iridology etc), there are thousands of registered practitioners, bound by the National Law to practice care that is evidence-based, who are practicing pseudoscience. The scope of the recent NHMRC review of natural therapies EXCLUDED interventions offered by registered practitioners on the basis that consumer protection was available through the AHPRA scheme.

This report highlights the millions of health dollars wasted by the Government funding of AltMed teachings and practices. Nearly $220 million was spent on acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy through Medicare from July 2011 to June 2016.

AltMed practitioners, who reject evidence-based medicine and over-service patient with placebo interventions are not the ‘right people’ to address patient needs, now and in the future.”